In this lyrical meditation on
the elements, Japanese singer Ua plays Ryo, a woman who becomes
entangled with an arsonist after her father dies and she takes
control of the family's bath house in a small provincial town in
Western Japan. Ryo, whose name means "cool, clear
water," is also known as "Rain Woman" because heavy
downpours tend to accompany important events in her life.
Simple, elegant visual effects and entrancing cinematography give
a mythical atmosphere to this beautiful directorial debut which
utilizes the kind of impossibly gorgeous imagery found in the
films of Tran Anh Hung. In what may safely be described as a
case of style over substance, we here have a beautiful nature meditation
and a still sketch of a young Japanese woman. Nothing more,
nothing less. The film won the Best Script prize at Sundance in
2001, and was given a Golden Alexander in Thessaloniki 2002. out of

This is a reference
quality DVD transfer - use it to show off the
capabilities of your home theatre system. The film
abounds with static scenes where the bit rate is allowed to drop
significantly, without any discernable loss in image definition
whatsoever; blacks are solid and dark areas are clean
of blocking artifacts. Water is a particularly tricky
substance to transfer properly onto DVD - but its internal dynamic
nature is here preserved perfectly by sending the bitrate through
the roof, as required. Yoko Kanno's ingenious, fluid
soundtrack likewise is presented with great attention
to detail.out
of .